Donald Trump once said he would love to release his tax returns but was under IRS audit, so he couldn’t.
But now his excuses have come back to haunt him and he no longer has a way to hide. Thanks to Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston and Rachel Maddow, we have part of Trump’s 2005 tax returns. And yes, they are indeed illuminating, to say the least.
Based on the two pages of the 2005 return we have, this is what we now know:
- Trump earned $150 million.
- Trump paid $36.5 million in taxes.
- The income tax rate Trump paid at was 24 percent. That is the normal rate for a married couple with two incomes who earn about $400,000 a year.
- Based on the returns, Trump made $418,000 per day in 2005.
Before the Rachel Maddow Show even aired Tuesday evening, the White House released the following statement:
Full initial @WhiteHouse response to @MSNBC obtaining @realDonaldTrump 2005 federal tax return. pic.twitter.com/Fr7TGIAGel
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) March 15, 2017
What we still don’t know is how Trump earned the $150 million income for 2005. Who paid him, and for what? Does he have holdings in countries that would cause us to sit up and take notice? For example, does he have extensive business holdings or owe loans to banks or other entities in Russia or China?
Granted, we only have two pages at this time, but as Maddow noted on her show, this tells us that the information is out there and someone wants to make sure it’s disseminated. This story is a far from over with. The entire return is out there somewhere, and it just may wind up being the next thing we get.
Featured Image Via Gage Skidmore for Flickr
